Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2013 14:31:53 GMT

That Notts County centenary season would have been one of the first such events outside of Sheffield. And it was "an England XI" which provided the opposition for the special match held in May 1962.

Notice how Tommy Northcott is bigged-up as our main man. I only caught the tail end of Tommy's career and it took me many years to appreciate how highly he'd been regarded. His time away from Plainmoor - at Cardiff and Lincoln - shouldn't be lightly dismissed. Both clubs were punching above their respective weights at the time and Tommy would have played in some of the finest sides fielded by either club. Indeed I think we've previously discussed how he must rank as one of the best-ever Torquay-born players.

Post by phipsy on Oct 25, 2013 18:58:26 GMT

That Notts County centenary season would have been one of the first such events outside of Sheffield. And it was "an England XI" which provided the opposition for the special match held in May 1962.

Notice how Tommy Northcott is bigged-up as our main man. I only caught the tail end of Tommy's career and it took me many years to appreciate how highly he'd been regarded. His time away from Plainmoor - at Cardiff and Lincoln - shouldn't be lightly dismissed. Both clubs were punching above their respective weights at the time and Tommy would have played in some of the finest sides fielded by either club. Indeed I think we've previously discussed how he must rank as one of the best-ever Torquay-born players.

Post by phipsy on Oct 25, 2013 20:50:51 GMT

Great profile of tommy northcott in the nots county programme.i would rate him in the top five legends in our history. From a sporting family, brought up in hele village. His brother was a solid uncompromising centre half for the gulls. His sister Peggy was a fantastic player herself and was usually picked before the boys in the kick about games at Barton downs.Certainly if she was around today she undoubtably would be an international for the ladies team. Tommy was always the classiest of the two brothers playing for England youth. Only 5 ft 8 ins, but supreme in the air, seem to linger in the air, a little bit like Steve cooper and Kevin hill in later years. Another legend, robin Stubbs would be the first to acknowledge he owed so many of his goals to the talents of tommy.lummaton is correct that Lincoln City and more so Cardiff were big teams in Tommy's time there, Cardiff being in the old first division. It's such a shame that in the wall at the end of bristows bench, Tommy's name has been added. But would you believe it has the inscription Tommy Northcott Torquay united GOALKEEPER. Yes I mean GOALKEEPER?

Post by stefano on Oct 26, 2013 1:29:44 GMT

Great profile of tommy northcott in the nots county programme.i would rate him in the top five legends in our history. From a sporting family, brought up in hele village. His brother was a solid uncompromising centre half for the gulls. His sister Peggy was a fantastic player herself and was usually picked before the boys in the kick about games at Barton downs.Certainly if she was around today she undoubtably would be an international for the ladies team. Tommy was always the classiest of the two brothers playing for England youth. Only 5 ft 8 ins, but supreme in the air, seem to linger in the air, a little bit like Steve cooper and Kevin hill in later years. Another legend, robin Stubbs would be the first to acknowledge he owed so many of his goals to the talents of tommy.lummaton is correct that Lincoln City and more so Cardiff were big teams in Tommy's time there, Cardiff being in the old first division. It's such a shame that in the wall at the end of bristows bench, Tommy's name has been added. But would you believe it has the inscription Tommy Northcott Torquay united GOALKEEPER. Yes I mean GOALKEEPER?

You are spot on about Tommy phipsy and I had the great pleasure of playing with him and his brother George after they retired from full time professional footballer - what I always remember when sitting next to Don Mills (yes I was on the subs bench again! ), was Mr Mills saying that with a different roll of the dice George would have been playing in the England team and be as famous as Bobby Moore. No good asking me as all I knew was you had to kick the ball in the general direction of the other teams goal, but Mr Mills knew his stuff so it has always stuck in my mind.

Post by phipsy on Oct 26, 2013 8:37:08 GMT

Correct stefano, I remember don mills extolling the virtues of George northcott. He was a a bit in the Arron downes mould. Tough.,never missed a thing in the air. I remember him playing centre forward in one match as well. He used to take the occosionall penalty and nearly broke the net he hit it so hard. Don mills also told me he rated very highly a full back we had on our books called Frank Austin. I believe he didn't play that many games for us but Don really rated him. Who could argue with the number one legend that was the DON. In my opinion of course.

Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2013 8:38:58 GMT

Thank you to Phipsy and Stefano for their tales of Tommy. Although Tommy would have been on the venerable side in 1966, I've been using a little bit of imagination to cast the Northcotts of Torquay - rather than the Charltons of Ashington - as the country's favourite football family. Ah, I bet you can see the black-and-white pictures of Hele village and Barton Downs in your mind now.

Back to reality and I'd love to know more about Tommy's return to the club in 1957. The centenary history talks of it being a protracted affair; that Notts programme suggests a tidy fee. Lincoln were in the second division but not doing well; we'd missed promotion and were becoming fearful of the fourth division. My apologies if we've covered this before, I may have forgotten, but was there much excitement about Tommy's return? He was, after all, still the right side of thirty.

Post by phipsy on Oct 26, 2013 12:13:50 GMT

There was indeed tremendous excitement generated by Tommy's return. It was reported at the time that the fee was in the region of £5000, which I believe was a record for the gulls,although I could be corrected on that. I was at the game when he made his return. We were 0-1 down to Southampton and it turned out to be a happy day when tommy scored to make the final score 1-1. It was quite a simple goal but the fans behind the babbacombe end were ecstatic. The babbacombe end had high terracing in those days and I would imagine there would have been around 2000 gulls fans there. There would not have hardly been a saints fan in sight. The only games when away fans were in evidence was in local Derbys v Exeter or Plymouth.Of course they were not segregated in those days, joined in together with just some good natured banter.

Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2013 9:17:36 GMT

Good comments from Phipsy on Tommy Northcott's return to Plainmoor. The centenary history records that his first game was the home match against Port Vale on 9 November with Southampton following on 23 November (with an FA cup tie, and replay, against non-league Peterborough intervening; the London Road game bring watched by 17,800). Yet there's no mention of Northcott(T) playing in either match against the Posh. Instead Northcott(G) has the number nine shirt. Is this all correct or has there been confusion along the line? There may, of course, have been stricter FA Cup registration rules in those days.

Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2013 9:32:29 GMT

I'll answer my own question. Redimps.com records that Tommy Northcott made his final appearance for Lincoln on the day we played at Peterborough. That confirms what Phipsy says about the Southampton game. Was that George playing up front against Port Vale?

Post by Jon on Oct 27, 2013 10:16:42 GMT

I'll answer my own question. Redimps.com records that Tommy Northcott made his final appearance for Lincoln on the day we played at Peterborough. That confirms what Phipsy says about the Southampton game. Was that George playing up front against Port Vale?

Good spot Barty!

The appearance count in the programme (see link below) suggests you are correct.

Post by phipsy on Oct 27, 2013 15:45:30 GMT

I am pretty sure the Southampton game was Tommy northcotts homecoming game. It would seem logical that it was Brother George who was currently playing in the number 9 shirt. The Peterborough cup matches I vaiguely remember. The were a non league team at the time, but a great cup team with scalps of big teams taken. So when we were drawn away at London road we feared the worst. So when we went down 3-0 it seemed to be all over. We had an incredible comeback led by a fine performance by watch be boy Ernie Pym. Final result 3-3. The replay ,probably the following Wednesday afternoon. I remember not being able to get the afternoon off of school. We scraped through 1 -0. The goal scored by Eric Johnson, I believe in quagmire conditions. Johnson was signed from Coventry as a right winger. A less likely winger you would not like to see, slow as a boat.However Eric Webber turned him into a midfielder and what a transformation. Totally inspiring, certainly one of the best wing halves or inside forwards in the last sixty years or so. Sadly Eric was dogged by injuries and we only saw the best of him for a short time.

Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2013 16:51:11 GMT

The Peterborough cup matches I vaiguely remember. The were a non league team at the time, but a great cup team with scalps of big teams taken. So when we were drawn away at London road we feared the worst. So when we went down 3-0 it seemed to be all over. We had an incredible comeback led by a fine performance by watch be boy Ernie Pym. Final result 3-3. The replay ,probably the following Wednesday afternoon. I remember not being able to get the afternoon off of school. We scraped through 1 -0. The goal scored by Eric Johnson, I believe in quagmire conditions. Johnson was signed from Coventry as a right winger.

We had quite an FA Cup history with Peterborough being drawn against them five times between the late 1940s and early 1960s. They did the "non-league giantkillers" act over us in 1952/53 and also beat us a couple of times soon after joining the Football League.

Peterborough first started to have a real go of trying to enter the League from about 1954. When they were successful in 1960 they'd won the Midland League five years on the trot. This was followed by the Fourth Division championship at the first attempt. As Phipsy suggests, we probably did rather well to knock them out in 1957/58.